Tag Archive | literature
TV Tropes Monday: The Battlestar
Tweet of the Day: Writing Excuses 9.9: What to do When Truth is Stranger than Fiction ——– Battleship+Aircraft Carrier+Space= The Battlestar. This trope runs of the Rule of Cool. It meshes the aura of power that comes from the battleship’s big guns plus thick armor with the romance of the ace pilot going against the […]
Lessons from the Aether: Sanderson and Worldbuilding a Plot
Tweet of the Day: Forging a Universe: Worldbuilding Physics ——- Brandon Sanderson is a master of weaving deep, well thought out worldbuilding into intricate fantasy plots. While other writers struggle with the question of how much background information to put in their stories, Sanderson makes figuring out how the world works part of the […]
Weekend Roundup: March 3-9
Tweet of the Day: Crossroads: Riding into Space- Westerns and Speculative Fiction ——- The hidden blessings of writer’s block. Yes, you read that right. You see, for me writer’s block is my brain way of saying, “You are about to screw up, buddy!” Doesn’t stop me from screwing up all the time, that is what […]
TV Tropes Monday: Atlantis
Tweet of the Day: Walking the Ghosts ——- Want an ancient civilization with fantastic technology/magic/treasure that disappeared due to a world shaking catastrophe because of the hubris of Man. One word: Atlantis. You’re one stop shop for: ancient mysteries, all myths are true, human aliens, ancient astronauts, eldritch horrors and loopy philosophers looking for allegories […]
Space for Rent: The Fiction of the White Interpreter
Tweet of the Day: Oscar loves a white savior ——- Reading the article I linked to above (the Tweet of the Day) got me thinking that a) this is a writing blog and b) that not all tropes are good. That means that I should, once in awhile, write post related to writing in general. […]
Genre as Argument: Science Fiction
Tweet of the Day: Bidding Farewell to the Comfort Zone ——- If science fiction makes an argument, it is one centered around technology: either it will improve our lives or it will devastate us. Each sub-genres within it stakes a place along the scale of idealism versus cynicism. Born out of the combination of the […]
Genre as Argument
Tweet of the Day: I remember Space Quest. Do You? ——– Short post today. In upcoming weeks I’ll be exploring the idea of genre (and sub-genres) as argument. The idea is that each book presents an argument, for or against a given world view, even if the author is not making direct appeals to his […]
Breaking Radio Silence
Tweet of the Day: Writing Excuses 7.48: Pixar Rules for Writing a Compelling Story ——- Posting has been twitchy of late. Lots of deadlines at the end of the month: ongoing series, an entry into an SFR anthology and some major changes to the current WiP. Talking of the WiP, I’m thinking that I […]
TV Tropes Monday: Plot Tumor
Tweet of the Day: Bring On The (Non) Kinck-Butt Sci-Fi Romance Heroines! ——– In the eternal quest to give stories the mythical “depth” everybody demands, writers often add, weave or pile on the subplots. They stem from Jenny’s dark years spent on the streets to Matt losing his mother at a young age. Or they […]
Neither Here nor There.... 